A care device for closed care, in which a patient is lying within a hood and is supplied with a predetermined air temperature and humidity, is known from DE 199 60 989 C2 (see also related U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,885 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). It is possible in the case of the prior-art device to remove the patient from the hood so that he or she can lie in direct skin contact with the mother or the father. This kind of care is called “kangaroo care.” With the hood opened, the care device is automatically controlled in this mode of operation such that false alarms are avoided.
The prior-art care device is normally operated in the mode of operation of skin temperature control. The set point of a preset skin temperature of the patient is compared here with the measured values of at least one temperature sensor on the patient's skin. The heating within the hood is set such that deviations between the measured and predetermined temperatures are minimized. The drawback is that the temperature sensors, which are bound to the skin, are connected with the control device of the care device via sensor wires, which greatly limits the range of action upon removal of the patient. On the other hand, the sensor wires can be extended to a limited extent only because of the weak measured signals, which also fails to solve the problem of the lack of mobility.
Even though it would also be possible to transmit the measured temperature values in a wireless manner, the maximum transmitting power for the most unfavorable constellation would always have to be selected in case of variable distance, because the case in which the care staff moves away from the care device together with the patient in order to briefly perform therapeutic procedures or examination at another location is also to be taken into account.